Path of the Pioneers

Without the will to oppose her, and without the fire in her heart to aid her, Morgan finally parted ways with Selene. Throughout the rest of her living days in this world, she would only see her beloved one more time.

She spent months wandering through Hyperion, doing little more than clearing the occasional dungeon and hearing out some of the people's requests. It was busywork, meant to distract her from the fact that she couldn't even bear to leave the kingdom behind. Even when nothing bound her there, she couldn't help but stay. So it was that Morgan, one of the main agents behind the Slumbering, went from a grand schemer to a vagabond - although she much preferred to think of it as being a 'traveler.'

Each person that she met along the way would snuff out whatever still burned on in her heart. The disparities between those born into nobility and those born into the lower classes were vast before, but her worst fears were confirmed with every interaction she had with the commoners of Hyperion. Decade by decade, the demands of the nobility grew firmer and firmer. Why had they grown so emboldened? Because they now held a monopoly on the act of awakening - of liberating yourself through the acquisition of power.

The wealthy flourished, and the impoverished languished.

She was the biggest fool there was, throughout the breadth and width of the world - she was certain of that much. So caught up was she in her grand plan that she failed to consider what would happen should it stall in the middle of one of its steps. And now the nobility that she felt naught but disgust for were left to treat the rest of the kingdom as nothing more than subservient to them.

Morgan encountered more than a few haughty nobles in her travels, ones who would mistreat the populace while holding their power overhead. She could see it, in those times -- the exact way in which she would kill them. The cobblestones would've been painted red (or blue, perhaps?) in those times, if she didn't manage to restrain herself. She certainly could have chased that momentary satisfaction, but it would have only led to more problems for herself.

But once, just once, Morgan wanted nothing more than to show them just how miniscule they were. How little their power meant, for as much as they tried to make others feel inferior with it.

She fumed like that, silently, going from village to village - town to town. It continued like that, until her pattern of quietude was broken by Morgan's lifelong companion, Stella.

"Morgan, do you see that boy?" Morgan was taken aback, in truth, for the fairy rarely spoke to her these days.

She scanned all around her, until eventually her gaze settled upon a boy with messy hair colored green like the sea. He seemed to be holding a burlap sack full of something or other, slowly walking somewhere. The color of his hair was strange, certainly, but...

Morgan cocked her head to the side, "Yes?" She whispered.

"He'll have a knack for the craft. You've got nothing else going on, right? Teach him." Stella spoke rather curtly, a far cry from her normal quips and sarcasm. But then again, her speaking at all had become an irregularity.

With that, Morgan sighed. She would follow the fairy's advice. A moment later, she approached the boy, leaning down to speak with him.

"That hair of yours, is that how it naturally looks?"

The sight of the child convulsing with pain filled her with a dread she thought she wasn't capable of feeling anymore. Their mouth hung open, no sound able to exit - although she assumed that they would have cracked the air with bloodcurdling screams if the pain allowed that. It was a cruel thing of her to do, of course, she wasn't even certain if they could survive the sudden reconnecting of body and soul - especially since they had been born with the Slumbering.

Stella assured her that it would work, of course.

She felt more relief than she ever had in her life when they fell limp, gasping for air as sweat trailed down their face. They were alive, and no longer burdened by the curse that she created. They would be free to live life as they saw fit, and they would be unshackled by magic itself.

That knowledge filled her with joy, that their journey was finally allowed to begin.

Morgan could tell quite quickly that something was different about her apprentice - and so often avoided the topic of gender in the first place. Her once-closest friend, Isa, had been much the same. Or similar, at the very least. So then, it wasn't very much a surprise when they revealed how they truly felt - that they wished to be a girl. And for some reason, some unknowable reason, the once darkened corners of her heart began to rekindle with the desire to aid her.

She prepared a ritual for the girl, one that her people once used long ago - but would now become empowered through her more direct usage of mana. Her body would be shifted and changed, made to be what she should have always been. And in a way, Morgan felt quite proud indeed to be able to do such a thing.

When all was said and done, Morgan bestowed upon her apprentice a brand new name: Sybil. Once she did so, she felt a connection to the girl that she thought might be the very same as a mother did with her daughter.

On some cold and dark nights, Morgan fantasized about a life like this where she had never been separated from Selene. Where she could have...

Morgan knew that in terms of fundamentals, she scarcely filled the girl in. But knowledge of magic, and the basics of utilizing it - integration, transformation, and so forth - were something that anybody could pick up with enough time (and rather early, at that!) What one couldn't establish easily after starting were habits.

After a lifetime of fighting as a mage, she knew exactly what skills (not Skills) were important to have right from the outset. To that end, Morgan sought to reinforce Sybil's ability to perform parallel control - the skill to wield an innumerable amount of separate pieces of energy. Someone who could do that, Morgan thought, would be truly unstoppable. Doubly so if they could then learn all of the things that Morgan had.

But Sybil had no need to learn those things immediately. No, she would do well just becoming skilled in those few things that Morgan set out for her. Someone who mastered wielding that much energy at once would be able to defeat anybody with just [Barrier] and some threads at their side.

Her apprentice did well in that regard, unbelievably well. So skilled was Sybil that she could cast [Flame Generation] while utilizing only threads. The thought made Morgan giddy - she was a prodigy! Hundreds upon hundreds of independent threads all controlled by one awakened; it was truly mind boggling. If Sybil were to expand that ability to the wider usage of mana, she would become a force to be reckoned with.

Her final gift to the girl was [Transmutation], a spell which embodied the first two fundamentals of magic. She never was able to watch Sybil learn it, but she knew that she was capable.

The rekindling of her heart only grew, and soon the anguish and regret she felt about her actions flared up with it. Each passing day became more and more unbearable, and it became more difficult to hold herself back from making her way for the Capital once and for all and putting an end to the Slumbering.

It was heart wrenching listening to Sybil begging and pleading for her not to leave. Eventually, her eyes were slick with tears, and the look on her face made it clear that she thought that she was the reason for Morgan's swift exit. She knew in her heart that it may very well be the last time that she'd see the girl, but she would deny her the context that the craved - that she needed.

Morgan almost broke down then and there, at the thought of never seeing her... Apprentice again.

She steeled her resolve, somehow, and left Sybil behind.

It would be the last time she ever saw her.